Shadow Tyrants (Oregon Files 13)

Mallik shook his head. “You said yourself that we’re creating the most advanced AI ever built. If that’s true, why do you think we could outsmart it? How do we know it won’t decide that it, in fact, should be making the decisions? We can’t possibly know what’s going to happen with Colossus when it reaches its full potential. We see it every day in unintended consequences from advanced software, software with millions of lines of code that no single person could ever read and comprehend. I saw it myself with my wife’s death.”

He swallowed as he remembered his own personal tragedy, then glanced at Torkan, who simply returned his gaze with a tinge of sadness.

Mallik looked at every member of the Nine. Several heads were nodding. He could feel the momentum swinging to his side’s favor. It was time for his final pitch.

“So I ask you, what happens when Colossus has billions of lines of code that it writes itself? What happens when Colossus reaches the singularity and can improve itself without any intervention from us, at a rate far beyond our imagination? Don’t we become irrelevant at that point? Don’t we become the servants instead of the masters?”

Carlton said, “But your shipboard fail-safe . . .”

Mallik dismissed that line of thinking with a wave of his hands. “Is a stopgap, nothing more. That’s why I built additional capabilities into the Vajra satellite constellation. That’s why I had the Colossus 5 damaged: to give me more time—to give us more time—to stop this madness once and for all.”

Mallik knew he’d said something wrong as soon as he saw Wakefield’s expression change to anger. On his other side, Gupta shook his head in pity. The rest of the Nine had reactions of surprise and disgust.

Except Carlton. He was beaming with a wide smile. Gupta got up and walked over to Carlton’s side of the table and shook his hand.

“You were right,” Gupta said. “I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

“Who else would have sabotaged the Colossus 5?” Carlton said. He focused on Torkan for a moment before staring at Mallik with obvious delight. “They didn’t believe me, Romir. Not fully. Thank you for admitting it.”

None of the other Nine would face Mallik after the revelation he’d so carelessly confessed. His stomach churned when Carlton looked at the six Library guards inside the meeting chamber and said, “Take him and Torkan into custody until we determine the proper method of execution.”

NINETEEN

Carlton was quite pleased at how his plan had played out. He knew that all he’d had to do was pander to Mallik’s need to be on the winning side.

The Library guards took out their weapons and moved toward Mallik and Torkan. Torkan tensed, ready for a fight that he couldn’t win. Mallik didn’t stand. Instead, he held up one hand with some kind of object in it.

“Stop right there,” he said. The guards hesitated and looked to Carlton, who rolled his eyes.

“Please, Romir. Don’t make this more pathetic than it already is.”

Mallik opened his palm and revealed a glass vial with red writing on it below an orange and black biohazard symbol.

“Volanski knows what this is,” Mallik said, looking at the Russian arms trader. “If you try to keep me from leaving the Library, I will drop it. Then all of us will die.”

Boris Volanski suddenly jumped to his feet in alarm.

“Novichok!” he yelled. Carlton could feel Natalie Taylor’s hand on his shoulder. His assistant knew as well as he did what Novichok could do.

“That’s right,” Mallik said. “This is a pressurized vial. If it breaks, the nerve agent will be propelled throughout the room. It will kill us in seconds.”

Carlton slowly got to his feet.

“Nobody leaves until Torkan and I do,” Mallik warned.

Carlton nearly sneered, “You haven’t got the guts.” But then he realized Mallik did have the guts and that he had nothing to lose. His wife was gone, he had no children, and he seemed to be fanatical about stopping the Colossus Project.

“How did you know it was me?” Mallik said.

Carlton said nothing. Mallik looked around the room until Jason Wakefield spoke.

“Carlton has a video of your man Torkan at the Moretti Navi shipyard,” he said, nodding at Mallik’s bodyguard. “He sent it to all of us before the meeting and suggested the ruse to get you to admit your involvement. Some of us didn’t initially believe it, particularly me because of the ‘kidnapping’ attempt that you now obviously set up. But I went along with it because I thought you would prove him wrong. Instead, Carlton was right. I don’t like being played for a fool.”

“How could you, Romir?” Melissa Valentine said, shaking her head. “We thought you were one of us.”

“I tried to warn you before we started,” Mallik said, “but you wouldn’t listen. I thought the project was a boondoggle until we established the Jhootha Island facility. Then I knew Colossus was no pipe dream. I was the only person who could stop you. That’s why I ramped up the Vajra project so quickly. It cost me even more than Colossus has cost us together, but now I see that it was worth it.”

He stood, the vial held between his fingers. “Now, I’m going to leave here with Torkan. I expect that you’ll try to prevent me from completing my satellite constellation. Go ahead. I’m ready for you. Whatever you can come up with won’t work. In the end, you’ll see that I’m